88th Ronde van Vlaanderen - CDM

Belgium, April 4, 2004

Mooi win for Wesemann

Steffen Wesemann (T-Mobile) is a quiet rider, one who has shown flashes of
great potential between periods of more modest results, but today he put his
name among the greats by winning the Tour of Flanders. Wesemann claimed victory
from a three man escape which formed on the penultimate climb of the Muur van
Geraardsbergen, beating Leif Hoste (Lotto-Domo) and Dave Bruylandts (Chocolade
Jacques) to the line in Meerbeke. Wesemann bounced back after a fall early in
the race, played his cards right, and had the strength to follow through with
the winning move.

"On the Muur I was watching Museeuw and Van Petegem, but when neither attacked
I realized I had to make my own move," Wesemann said after his victory. "After
the top [of the Muur] it was just a question of keeping going until the finish."

Indeed, with all eyes on defending champion Peter Van Petegem, three-time Flanders
winner Johan Museeuw (in his last appearance at de Ronde), and other leaders
such as Paolo Bettini and Michael Boogerd, Wesemann not only took an opportunistic
win, but showed himself to be the strongest rider in the race.

"When we were riding to the finish with three, I asked my sport director Mario
Kummer who Bruylandts and Hoste were. Mario assured me that I could beat them
in the sprint. I stayed calm and finished it off."

Second placed Leif Hoste (Lotto-Domo) had an incredible race, making the early
break and surviving the next 230 km until the finish. "If you had told me before
the start that I would be second in the Ronde van Vlaanderen, I would have laughed
it off," he told Belgian TV. "I received instruction from the team
to go in an early break. First of all I managed that. But apparently there was
more to come. Finally we went with three at the front of the race."

In third position was the consistently strong Dave Bruylandts (Jacques), who
couldn't shake his breakaway companions with an attack in the final kilometre.
"I'm a bit disappointed, but I knew it would be difficult against Wesemann in
the sprint, so I had to do something," he said. "I tried to ride away,
and if Hoste hadn't reacted, then I would have won the Ronde van Vlaanderen.
You always have to let the fastest sprinter react to an attack and that was
Wesemann. I'm angry at the rider Hoste but not at him as a person."

Hoste's response was, "I ride for myself. I don't ride for the national team,
right? I didn't have to ride at the front. I had spent all day in front and
I had Van Petegem and Van Bon behind me. They were the top men and me the helper."

In his Flanders swan song, Museeuw kept himself in the company of the pre-race
favourites for the majority of the race, and said afterwards that he did everything
he could and was satisfied with his effort. His Quick.Step-Davitamon teammate
Paolo Bettini, on the other hand, acknowledged his own mistake of marking only
Van Petegem and allowing the winning move to go clear without him. Milan-San
Remo winner Oscar Freire maintained his World Cup lead, but made a hasty exit
after the finish, fearing a broken nose after he too crashed earlier in the
race.

How it unfolded

With a stiff breeze blowing off the Belgian coast, the peloton set out for
a tough slog to Oostende before turning inland toward the famed bergs of Flanders
that define the prestigious classic. The requisite early break went clear, but
in fact the first quarter of the race was marked by a number of groups trying
to define themselves ahead of the nervous peloton. An early break of four eventually
grew to 18, including, among others, Michael Rich (Gerolsteiner), Thomas Bruun
(CSC), Jan Schaffrath (T-Mobile), Martin Elmiger (Phonak), Benoît Joachim and
Antonio Cruz (USPS), Stefano Zanini (Quick.Step), Jörg Ludewig (Saeco), and
Steven De Jongh (Rabobank).

Second placed Leif Hoste's performance began early on when he led an eight
man chase group behind this first big move, eventually catching the leaders
after 44 kilometres and forming an even larger leading group. Hoste would spend
virtually the entire day in the front positions, showing great tenacity to pave
the way for his leader Van Petegem, and ultimately take his own chance when
his man wasn't up to the task.

The lead group, 26 riders strong, built an advantage of over four minutes before
riders began to tail off the back of the break and the anxious leaders set their
teams to the chase. As the race hit the first of the climbs, the leaders' advantage
dropped below the four minute mark as a number of counter attacks upped the
pace. Despite having men up front, Lotto-Domo and US Postal Service led the
chase early on over the climbs of the Rekelberg and the Molenberg. A chase group
went clear with Ludo Dierckxsens (Landbouwkrediet) in search of the large leading
bunch, gaining time on the main peloton spreading the race out across the Flemish
countryside.

As the front-runners hit the short, steep Wolvenberg climb (km 160), their
advantage had grown once more, this time to over five minutes. The intermediate
chase group, led by Belgian veteran Ludo Dierckxsens (Landbouwkrediet-Colnago),
built its own gap to 2'15 over the main bunch. Dierckxsens had plenty of talent
in his group, including Danilo Hondo (Gerolsteiner) and Nico Mattan (Relax-Bodysol),
both of whom showed good form at the Three Days of De Panne.

After the climbs of the Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg, and Koppenberg, the head
of the race had split into three groups, as riders like Hoste, Lotto teammate
Thierry Marichal, and Stefano Zanini (Quick.Step) forced the pace and caused
more damage on the tough cobbled ascents. The peloton by this point was closing
in, however, within 2'30 of the leaders and chasing hard. By the top of the
Taaienberg, the pressure from Dierckxsens helped spit more riders out from the
chase group and a new set of ten going clear. Bruylandts opened his own gap
in the main field along with Museeuw, showing himself early relatively early
but clearly with strength left in his legs.

American George Hincapie, winner Wednesday in De Panne, tried to spark a winning
move on the Leberg. Frustrated, he found nobody to help him, particularly as
Van Petegem's Lotto team had two men further up the road. Bruylandts was the
next to give it a go, taking Serguei Ivanov with him while Michael Boogerd leapt
across to catch the tail end of the move. They were soon caught by the group
of favourites, but the attack signaled the coming of the crucial point in the
race, with the often decisive climbs of the Tenbosse, the Muur, and the Bosberg
still to come.

Van Petegem tried to go clear on the paved rise of the Tenbosse, but Bettini
wouldn't let him go. By this point eight men were still away up front, but their
advantage was dwindling quickly as the more than 200 kilometres covered seemed
to do nothing to blunt the speed of the peloton. The leaders were caught just
before Geraardsbergen and the showdown was on on the Muur with a big group of
heavy-hitters still together.

It was at this point that the expected attacks from Van Petegem, Vandenbroucke,
and Museeuw didn't materialize, leaving Wesemann and Bruylandts to spark the
winning escape with Hoste in tow. Hoste, who had been away in some fashion all
day long, avoided taking any pulls as the trio sped toward Meerbeke. The other
two let him sit on, preferring to take their own chances rather than get caught
up in a premature tactical battle. Hoste did close the gap when Bruylandts put
in a last kilometre attack, but it only served to set up the powerful Wesemann
to take the sprint and claim his first ever World Cup victory.